British Fashion Council Inks Agreement with eBay, Enters Luxury Market

The auction site eBay is generally not associated with high fashion or the luxury market. But all that is going to change as the British Fashion Council today announced their new agreement with the ecommerce site. eBay now moves into the designers market as they take on sponsorship of Fashion Forward designers at London Fashion Week and beyond from September. The collaboration will place the erstwhile auction house firmly in the luxury market. The website already has a fashion arm which boasts of about 102 million users worldwide. They hope to leverage this large customer base to support emerging British design talent. The agreement is valid for multiple seasons and will help the site to develop the business.

Fashion Forward Designers will Create Collections for eBay

The British Fashion Council had started the Fashion Forward initiative six years ago and its success can be gauged from the fact that it has nurtured and supported some of the greatest talents in Britain. Christopher Kane, Erdem, Jonathan Saunders, Giles Deacon and Roksanda Illincic are some of the prominent names amongst them. The initiative has been able to unearth new talent and this year’s Fashion Forward designers include some very promising names like Mary Katrantzou, Louise Gray, Henry Holland and James Long. They will be creating spring summer 2013 collections exclusively for eBay under the agreement. This is sure to corner a significant share of the luxury fashion market for the ecommerce site.

The Site will Launch its First Charity Fashion Auction

Melanie Smallwood who heads eBay fashion is excited about the new arrangement and sees the partnership with British Fashion Council as an opportunity to support the emerging talent in Britain and help them in creating long term sustainable and successful business. It will also help the site shed its image of being just an auction house. The auction house is no doubt the mainstay of the site but it is much more than that. However, leveraging their auction house skills and strength the site is launching Bid Boutique with its first charity fashion auction; Save the Children on 13th September. An exciting collection of items will be on offer including stuff from Jimmy Choo and Alexander McQueen. However the highlight would be the Burberry dress worn by Samantha Cameroon to the Royal Wedding last year.